This course will examine how Australia is responding to the rapidly changing global political and economic systems. Its aim will be to enable students to judge how far Australia's global viewpoint and strategy will meet effectively these challenges. We will look at the response to four main issues:

• globalisation, including how globalisation affects the role of Australian governments and relations with other countries, particularly in Asia;

• global order changes (whether based on hegemonic, imperialist or cosmopolitan influences) including US (continuing?) unipolarity, the war on terror and terrorism and the rise of Islam and of religion more generally in global politics, and their impacts on Australia's relations with the UN, other multilateral institutions, and alliance relations with the US;

• global demographic and economic change, including the shifts in economic structures among the US, Europe and Asia, energy supplies and energy security and global climate change; and

• Australia's approach to Asia, including its bilateral and multilateral security and economic links, examining, in particular, the growing importance of China and India and Australia's position between China (and Asia) and the West.
  

5,000 - 6,000 words of written assessment, comprising essays, seminar papers and an examination as deemed appropriate by the lecturer.

12 two-hour seminars